


i can’t find my breath, can we just say the rest with no sound?

by bugabisous (mariafernanda)



Series: this love is a tangled web [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Marichat | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, this is part of a series of CONNECTED ficlets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:22:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23138392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariafernanda/pseuds/bugabisous
Summary: Looking back, he was surprised to notice that Plagg had seemed to understand his feelings better than he did, considering how he kept pushing him to try with Marinette.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: this love is a tangled web [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634344
Comments: 20
Kudos: 189





	i can’t find my breath, can we just say the rest with no sound?

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the song Good to you by Marianas Trench.

After his patrol with Ladybug was over, he really meant to go straight home. Usually, he stayed around for a few more minutes, enjoying the freedom, but that night he was too lost in thought to actually risk jumping around rooftops. Figures that Ladybug would kiss his cheek and make his mind go wild the moment he decided to move on and ask Marinette out. He knew he would always have a place for Ladybug in his heart, and that his pulse would always quicken at her proximity, but for a moment he wondered if maybe her doing that was a sign that he should hold out for her.

And then his doubts vanished. Because that’s when he saw her. She was sitting in her balcony, playing with her phone and mumbling to herself. Bathed in moonlight, a soft smile in her face, she looked more beautiful than ever before. Then again, he always thought she looked more beautiful than the previous time he’d seen her and she always managed to surprise him. Like a shot to the gut, a rush of emotion made him go to her side.

When he landed, she didn’t even jump, she just directed her brilliant smile at him and greeted him, motioning for him to come closer.

“Hi, Kitty,” she said, scooting over and patting the chair she was sitting in, “what brings you here on this fine day?”

“Oh, the usual,” he winked at her, “the promise of something sweet. And I don’t mean the pastries.”

No matter how close he had gotten to Marinette, there was no way that he could have prepared himself for the way she leaned in close to his face and looked down at his lips before saying, “Really? So you’re here for some sugar?” and lifting an eyebrow.

He was positive his face was incredibly red and his mouth felt like a desert, he gulped in order to get a hold of himself but it was useless. “ _Guh_ ,” he said, as eloquent as ever, while he desperately tried to avoid looking at her lips. The way her fingers were inching closer to his neck wasn’t helping, for he could feel the vague pressure of them through the fabric of his suit.

She flicked his bell before putting some space between them. “Relax, Chat, I was just messing with you.”

“Yeah, of course I knew that,” he said quickly, before cringing at the slightly strained quality of his voice and clearing his throat. A part of him was grateful that Marinette didn’t usually act like this around him, because he was sure that if she had he would have fallen ass over tea kettle from day one too and he’d have died already.

It was right at that moment, sitting in her balcony, that he became suddenly and incredibly that she had confessed to Chat Noir all these months ago. He couldn’t help but replay that moment in his head, and the way it had felt to hug her after the whole fiasco was over. Looking back, he was surprised to notice that Plagg had seemed to understand his feelings better than he did, considering how he kept pushing him to try with Marinette. He wondered how things would be now, had he not rejected her.

In a way, though, he was glad that it hadn’t happened back then. He had been still too hung up on Ladybug, which probably would have soured any relationship he tried to have. Granted, it had been Marinette herself who had pried his heart from the tight grip that Ladybug had on it, so he was sure that he would have completely fallen for her all the same. Still, she couldn’t know Chat Noir’s identity, not any time soon, and he knew that the secret could strain the relationship since they couldn’t go out as Chat Noir and Marinette in public. But perhaps Shenron could be a different story; he was counting on the fact that Ladybug seemed very supportive of him and Marinette to maybe gain her approval to reveal themselves, so that they could also be together in their civilian lives.

Because he had come to realize that the pull was too strong around Marinette. He had no idea how he would be able to act naturally around her if they started dating as superheroes. In fact, he had no doubt that he would make an ass out of himself the first time she smiled at him or accidentally brushed her arm against his. Gone were the days when he wasn’t hyperaware of every little sound she made in class as she sat behind him, or the days when he could meet her pretty blue eyes without wanting to kiss her senseless, or the days when he wasn’t itching to hold her hand all the time. He was completely gone for her and a part of him suspected that he had already been in the middle of falling for her for months now, perhaps since the very beginning.

Sitting next to her in her balcony, in complete silence, with the cold night air biting against his skin, he realized that he wanted to share every part of himself with her, and wanted her to let him in her life and to know absolutely everything about her. Every thought he had about her felt like a romantic book cliché, but he couldn’t help it. He could practically hear the blood rushing to his ears as he looked at her mouth, and it was as if every nerve ending on his body was singing with energy in the places where her eyes landed – like his cheekbones or, for a second, his lips.

“Marinette, I,” he started, before trailing off when he realized he was still Chat Noir and she had told Adrien she liked Shenron. He didn’t think he could handle her rejecting him at that moment, not even if it was for himself – though she didn’t know that, and that’s why he decided to keep his mouth shut, “I have to go.”

“Do you really?” she asked, softly. Then her eyes widened, as if it had slipped up without thinking, and a blush covered her cheeks. He wanted to stay, he felt as if he would _die_ if he didn’t stay – but he didn’t want to confuse her, not when he knew that she had her eye on another side of him. He wanted to tell her, right then and there, that he was Adrien, and Shenron, and that he was madly in love with her; he felt the words heavy in his tongue, dying to spill themselves out.

“I am sorry, I really wish I could stay,” he replied, giving in to the urge to put a hand on her shoulder and shivering at the way she seemed to react to his touch, since she let out a shaky breath before bringing the weight of her gaze to his face.

Her eyes seemed suddenly sharp, as if she had suddenly remembered something important, when she said, “I understand, Chat,” and brought her hand to squeeze the one on her shoulder, before giving him a soft smile, “take care on the way home, okay?”

He stood up, feeling her hand slip up from his, and returned the smile with one of his own. He gave her a salute, “I am always careful.”

“No, you’re not,” she said, fondly, shaking her head. A sense of familiarity struck him, and he had to turn around and move closer to the railing of her balcony so he could stop himself from kissing her.

“Well, I’ll be careful this time, at least,” he said, turning to look at her for a second, “Cat’s honor.”

The giggle she gave in response followed him all the way home and into his dreams.


End file.
